Why I wrote this guide
Let us face it: Carnātic music can be esoteric to those not familiar with it. And learning it can be daunting. Long ago, to share the boundless treasure I (and countless others) had found in Carnātic music, I attempted to teach appreciating it to a few others. I failed miserably. I gave up teaching way too easily, thinking that “perhaps this person isn’t inherently interested” or “perhaps that person doesn’t have the innate abilities required.” This is what most people assume, and like I did, give up learning too easily, because of which Carnātic music remains esoteric and inaccessible.
However, both these were clearly proven wrong. Several years later, upon having grown my own understanding of how learning processes work, it I suspected that my prior attempts lacked the underpinnings of effective learning methods, and a learning structure. Once I applied effective learning methods and structure, first to my child, then to adults, I found that teaching people to appreciate Carnātic music became not just possible but the learning process itself became easy and fun, full of interesting challenges to be explored and overcome.
This discovery inspired me to write this set of articles: to guide people along their learning, especially during those first ten rāgams or so, where each step seems shaky and seems like it could be the end of the line, and to make it easy and fun instead.
Happy learning!